Leeds United have once again had plenty of negative things to say about U.S. men’s national team attacker Brenden Aaronson and manager Daniel Farke has once again come to his player’s rescue.
Aaronson played 80 minutes on Sunday as Leeds United suffered a 2-1 home loss to Aston Villa, a result that dropped them into the English Premier League’s relegation zone. The 25-year-old worked tirelessly in the match, but ultimately failed to create a single offensive opportunity in his shift.
Despite his strong work rate and continuous defensive pressing as an attacking midfielder, Aaronson has only registered one goal and one assist in 12 league appearances this season. His lack of production in England’s top-flight has led to many Leeds United fans continuously criticizing Aaronson on social media, something that Farke has previously asked to stop.
Farke once again defended his player on Sunday, calling the abuse Aaronson receives as unfair.
“I have to say Brenden is a player who polarizes and can be annoying even for me,” Farke said. “Sometimes he’s not clear enough and can be a bit hectic. But I have to say what we’re doing in criticizing this young man — then we don’t have to do all these mental health awareness days.
“He represents so many skills we want to stand for as Leeds United,” he added. “He works his socks off, gives everything, is relentless and leaves his heart on the pitch. It’s more than unfair at the moment. In the last three performances he was always there covering 13 kilometers per game. Why we’re looking so solid on our right side, with all respect to Jayden [Bogle], Brenden is so crucial to protect him.”
This season isn’t the first time that Aaronson has been the victim of abuse from his own club supporters. Aaronson was one of many players criticized following Leeds United’s relegation from the Premier League in 2023 before he was also scrutinized at times during the 2024-25 EFL Championship season when Aaronson hit a dry spell in front of net.
With three losses in a row and five defeats out of their last six matches, Leeds United are in worrying spot, especially with the festive schedule not far from kicking off. Farke admitted that the abuse that Aaronson and other players receive is not only good for the sport, but also a poor look in society.
“I’m just worried how we are as a society, with social media stuff, how we are as human beings,” Farke said. “You just see the negative comments. If you see 5,000 negative comments about yourself as a 24, 25-year-old guy, you think the whole world is on your shoulders. I could make my life easy and also slam him and then everyone would say, ‘Yeah, Daniel, tell him, great, we don’t like him anyway.’ But I protect human beings. This is what I do.
“I work with human beings, I don’t work with robots,” he added. “I also see what this lad is doing. And he is always a fantastic teammate. He works his socks off. We feel better if we can put our anger just on other human beings. I don’t like it. And when everyone is on his back, for such a young lad, is it really like how we want to treat human beings in our society? At least I don’t want to treat them [like that].”
Leeds United’s current stretch doesn’t get any easier with back-to-back matches against top-three sides Manchester City and Chelsea before a home date with reigning champions Liverpool on December 6.
BA was up against it from day one at Leeds. No one in England has ever had many issues with American defenders, but attacking players are held to a much higher standard. That being said, Leeds fans view BA as a direct replacement for Raphinha, and let’s face it: he’s never going to play for Barcelona. Leeds also overpaid for a guy who was doing well in Austria, a league with only one good team.
No one questions his hustle and he reads the game better than most US players; however, my issue is the same the Yorkshire press seem to have with post-match player ratings: he looses the ball to easily.
Post South Africa 2010, I’ve spent most of the last 15 years watching the USMNT in the fetal position as they constantly give away possession, allowing our opponents to counter. Keller, Friedel, and T-Ho aren’t there to bail us out anymore. If Aaronson makes the final 26, his role will be as a late game sub to be a pest, because he can’t be relied upon to hold the ball.
Once again, Leeds is in a relegation fight, and for a guy who once boasted he wanted to be a Leeds legend, every mistake will be amplified.
I’m still rooting for him.
Please pardon the typos: my middle school grammar teacher would be rolling in his grave for messing up to and too
“ I think BA has had too much expected of him.” Of course but fans aren’t rational. They sold Raphina who has 57g and 47a for Barcelona and got Aaronson who has 13g 8a. They were supposed to get Cody Gakpo along with BA, but he backed out at the last minute to raise his stock at the WC and now scores double digits for Liverpool. Brenden is much more a symbol of their frustration of the organization’s failures as he is his own lack of production. They can’t boo, Jesse Marsch, they can’t boo the front office who weren’t able to bring in offensive firepower in the summer window so they boo Brenden. A lot of people thought they’d replace him this summer with either better #10 or a more prolific goal scorer, but they weren’t able to sign any big talent.
It’s not fair but it’s fans. Without pro/rel in our sports it’s hard for we Americans to understand how we’d feel. The closest thing would be an MLB player demanding a trade at the deadline or NFL camp holdout but those players then don’t come back and the team doesn’t drop to Triple A or the XFL.
I mean he is polarizing fir US fans. Love his workmate, but he just doesn’t have the ability to consistently produce in the final third. To be honest he may be more of a DM then he is as an AM.
Doesn’t help the idiots at MLS media dubbed him as the Medford Messi.
Stop, absolutely no one took that nickname seriously. The fans hate him because he ditched them after relegation and he hasn’t lived up to his 30 million dollar transfer fee. BA was their 2nd biggest transfer. Rutter stayed earned them some money, Adams earned them money , they basically broke even on Sinisterra. They lost a little on Roca and Kristensen but they never came back so it didn’t do any good to hate them. Aaronson they are out 30 million with little return and only modest Championship production and every week he’s there reminder of how crap Marsch’s roster build was that year.
I agree but plenty of Leeds fans have used the name to bash him. And yes him ditching Leeds was the worst thing he could have done.
When a team over pays for a player, why is it the player’s fault? Did he hold a gun to their head at contract time?
He had played for them before, so they knew what they were getting. If there is fault to assign, it belongs to the club GM. No one doubts that BA works his socks off, as the manager says. All anyone can do is do the best they are capable of. I’ve always liked Teddy Roosevelt’s definition of success–doing the best you can with what you have, where you are. That’s all anyone can reasonably ask for. All the armchair GM’s here. Why aren’t you a real GM for a major soccer club? I mean, really. I think
BA has had too much expected of him and he should be used more as a playmaking mid rather than an attacking mid. I think that’s his major problem.
In defense of Jesse, when the season started he did not have a PL quality striker to work with: Bamford missed enough sitters to cost them at least 7 points. Still they were good enough to beat Liverpool before Qatar 2022. Once Adams got hurt, along with Jesse’s stubborn personality, the wheels came off the bus.